# Olive oil and holy water **Oglio d’oliva*; *acqua santa** **Known today as.** Fine olive oil; water blessed by the Church. Kind: Compound ## What did Canale use it for? Three pounds of oil and half a pound of holy water form the base of the oil for the bewitched (ch. 9). ## What does modern science say? Olive oil is the vehicle: Canale has the other liquors, holy water among them, boiled away in a bain-marie until only the oil is left. ## Pharmacognosy and toxicology - **oleic acid**: 55–83 per cent of the fatty acids - **oleocanthal**: the peppery anti-inflammatory of fresh oil - **hydroxytyrosol**: - **water**: **Mechanism.** Three pounds of olive oil to half a pound of holy water, which Canale boils off with the other liquors until only the oil is left: the oil is a demulcent and, as Grieve says, a good vehicle for liniments. In the PREDIMED trial a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil was followed by fewer major cardiovascular events than a reduced-fat diet; the oleocanthal of fresh oil inhibits the same cyclooxygenase enzymes as ibuprofen. **Dose.** A food. **Standing.** A food; in 2025 the EFSA panel found that a cause-and-effect relationship had not been established between the phenolic compounds of olive oil and lower LDL cholesterol or blood pressure. ## What lore surrounds it? Folkard tells the contest of Neptune and Minerva for Athens, settled by the olive “which at her command had sprung from the soil,” so that “Minerva became the tutelary deity of the city”; the sacred olive in her temple “was burnt by Xerxes with the temple; but it was stated to have shot up again suddenly.” The dove of Noah brought back an olive-leaf, a garland of olive was given to Judith, and “as an emblem of peace and reconciliation, the Olive is figured on the tombs of the early martyrs,” borne by the angel Gabriel, St. Agnes and St. Pantaleon, and “by Romanists the Olive is deemed a fitting emblem of the Virgin Mary.” The Athenians consulted the Delphic oracle “holding in their hands branches of Olive.” Thiselton-Dyer: “In Italy, an olive branch which has been blessed keeps the witch from the dwelling.” The olive “is the well-known tree of Minerva,” it is of good omen when seen in dreams, and “a wreath of a fragrant kind of olive is the reward of literary merit in China.” Grieve recalls “that Moses exempted from military service men who would work at its cultivation,” that the oil “was burnt in the sacred lamps of temples, while the victor in the Olympic games was crowned with its leaves,” and that in Scripture and the classics “the oil is mentioned as a symbol of goodness and purity, and the tree as representing peace and happiness.” ## What did the older authorities say? **Pliny.** “It is not with olive oil as it is with wine, for by age it acquires a bad flavour, and at the end of a year it is already old,” a provision of Nature, since wine is for the drunkard and oil for use; he records that in the year 680 of Rome the aedile M. Seius fixed the price at ten pounds for an as, and that Hesiod held no man had ever gathered fruit from an olive he had sown himself. ## Sources - Pliny the Elder, *Natural History* 15.1, 15.3, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library. - Folkard, R. (1884). *Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics*, “Olive.” Project Gutenberg #44638. - Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (1889). *The Folk-lore of Plants*. Project Gutenberg #10118. - Grieve, M. (1931). *A Modern Herbal*, “Olive.” botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/o/olive-06.html - EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens (2025). Phenolic compounds naturally present in olive oil and lowering of blood LDL-cholesterol and systolic blood pressure: evaluation of a health claim pursuant to Article 14 of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006. *EFSA Journal*. - Abrante-Pascual, S., et al. (2024). Vegetable oils and their use for frying: a review of their compositional differences and degradation. *Foods* 13. - Beauchamp, G. K., et al. (2005). “Ibuprofen-like activity in extra-virgin olive oil.” *Nature* 437. - Estruch, R., et al. (2018). “Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease with a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts.” *New England Journal of Medicine* 378. --- *Olive oil and holy water.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-03. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/olive-oil-and-holy-water Historical description, not medical advice.